THE NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2008

Welcome to the issue of the WEATHERFUN Newsletter

Words From Jerry

Welcome Weatherfun member to the October issue of the Weatherfun Newsletter and Jerry's words. The big news of course has been the weather in my area. In August we had a tornado pass just on the other side to Tony's Street. Unfortunately, I was outside on the deck when I seen and heard on the TV and NOAA weather radio the tornado warning. No sooner I looked up from the deck there was this full blown tornado right in front of me. It did some tree damage in the area, and up rooted some trees, but no injuries or deaths. Then over the weekend of Sept 26th we had a visit from Kyle visit our area. No wind damage but the rain was the big deal. Over a three day period I received a total of 4.79 inches of rain. September here in Rhode Island went down as the rainiest September in history. Every since the NWS has been keeping records we had by far the rainiest Sept in history. Here at my weather station I picked up 10.79 inches of rain. The ground was so water logged that some trees came down right from the root ball, due to all of the rain and soaked ground. Just this past week up in Andy's area of R. I. he had some severe T-storms and some rotation was spotted, but no tornado's developed. So the weather has been quite wild in my area. It is now turning much cooler and the leaves are now starting to turn. Peak color right now is in the White Mountains of NH. We plan on being in that area next week and plan on bringing back some pictures. Keep in mind that we still have the hurricane season until the end of November, so it is not over as of yet. Frost could be in our forecast next week. 2009 WEATHERFUN FAMILY REUNION Yes, as you read this plans are already under way for the 2009 Weatherfun Family Reunion. I stress that this is a family reunion, so if you feel you would like to bring along a family member please feel free to do so. Children are also welcome. Andy is working on some plans for the little ones, and a surprise for us. Our reunion is always held the second week of July at the Quality Motor Inn in Somerset, Mass. Please plan on keeping this time open. Tell your boss you need the time to head northeast to Rhode Island and S. E. Mass. area for a grand time. We had a grand time this year, and the highlight was the visit to the NWS in Taunton, Mass. and tour director was Eleanor. I am happy to say that Eleanor and her husband Dean are now Weatherfun members. A great addition to a great group. I have also become a weather spotter for CBS TV 12 out of Providence, and I hope they will be a big part of next year's reunion. So, make your plans NOW to head northeast for a grand time. As I stated at this year's reunion, you have not seen anything yet. Just wait until you see what we have planned for next summer's reunion. If you miss this one, you will be missing a grand time. Keep in mind that this is your newsletter and if there is a weather related article that you would like to see in the newsletter, please feel free to send it to Bill or I and we will see that it gets in a future issue. Till then stay warm, stay safe and keep an eye to the sky. JERRY LAROCHE WEATHERFUN/FOUNDER/PRESIDENT

September's Weather 1st: Hurricane Gustav makes landfall near Cocodrie, LA. about 70 SW of New Orleans. While Gustav was a weakening Cat 2, it still produced heavy rains, high surge and winds gusting over 100 mph. Several tornados from Louisiana to Florida. 7 deaths were related to the storm. TS Hanna drifted in the Bahamas and well out in the ocean TS Ike forms. 2nd: Gustav was downgraded to a TS and dumped up to 7" of rain in northern Louisiana into Arkansas. TS Hanna drifts SE to the southern Bahamas with flooding rains and winds gusting to 70 mph. 3rd: TS Hanna turns to the NNW as she continued to drop flooding rains over the southern Bahamas and Haiti. Ike becomes a hurricane early in the day well out in the ocean and rapidly increases to a Cat 4 with 135 mph winds by midnight. 4th: TS Hanna slowly crosses the northern Bahamas. 5th: Several hundred corpses were found in Hait when the muddy floodwaters recede following several days of heavy rain from Hanna. Ike weakens to a Cat 3. 6th: TS Hanna comes ashore on the SC/NC border bringing heavy rains and gusts to 70 mph. She rapidly moves up the coast dumping heavy rains along the way is east of New England by midnight. Ike crosses the Turks and Caicos Islands causing major damage with it's flooding rains and Cat 3 winds. 7th: Ike comes ashore on the northern coast of Cuba with 125 mph winds. 48 deaths were reported in Haiti from Ike. 8th: Ike moves across eastern Cuba and moves slowly westward along it's southern coast weakening to a Cat 1. 9th: Ike moves WNW across western Cuba with 80 mph winds causing 4 deaths and enters the SE Gulf of Mexico bringing tropical storm winds to SW Florida and the Keys dumping up to 5" of rain and at least 2 tornadoes. 10th: Ike becomes a Cat 2 as he moves WNW slowly towards the central Gulf. 11th: Ike continued moving WNW across the Gulf staying a Cat 2, but causing rough seas and some coastal flooding in Florida and Mississippi. 12th: Ike grows in size, but stays a Cat 2 as he heads towards Texas. Due to his size, there was coastal flooding from the Florida Panhandle over to Louisiana. 13th: Ike comes ashore just east of Galveston, TX with heavy rain, winds over 100 mph and over a 15 foot storm surge. Ike tracked over Houston causing widespread damage and power outages. Up to 4" of snow in the mountains just outside of Denver, CO. 14th: The remnants of Ike dumped as much as 6 to 8 inches of rain in parts of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, spawned a tornado Arkansas that damaged several buildings, caused 3 deaths and delivered hurricane-force winds to Ohio, forcing Cincinnati's main airport to temporarily shut down. 19th: More than 2.3 million electricity customers in six states as far away as Pennsylvania remain without power as a result of Hurricane Ike and its aftermath of heavy rain. Of those, 1.6 million customers are in Texas. 18th: To date 51 deaths have been related to Hurricane Ike. Residents were still not able to return to Galveston Island. 22nd: Residents start to return to Galveston Island to find near total devastation. Death toll reaches 57. 25th: An area of disturbed weather 645 miles SSW of Bermuda becomes TS Kyle moving NNW with winds near 60 mph. 27th: Kyle becomes a hurricane with 75 mph winds and passes west of Bermuda causing minor problems. 28th: Kyle races northward and weakens as it comes ashore in western Nova Scotia. 29th: Subtropical Laura forms well out in the Atlantic and well west of the Azores. Later in the day it becomes more tropical with winds near 60 mph and changes direction from West to North.

PICTURES OF THE MONTH Galveston Island, Surfside Texas Crystal Beach, Port Bolivar and the Houston area

Links 4 You From late August into mid-September, the United States was hit by 3 named storms. Ike's Rainfall Total Click to Enlarge Here's a great review of Fay

RAINFALL TOTALS FROM HURRICANE GUSTAV THROUGH 7 AM 9/04/08 Larto Lake, LA 21.00 Jigger, LA 20.00 Jonesville, LA 19.97 Clayton, LA 17.81 Red River Lock and Dam, LA 15.60 Grace, MS 14.24 Rayville, LA 13.91 Acme, LA 13.09 Union Church, MS 11.93 Eudora, AR 11.90 Crossett 2 SSE, AR 11.70 Vidalia, LA 11.54 Hamburg, AR 11.50 Oak Grove, LA 11.48 Lake Providence, LA 11.47 Mid-Delta Regional AP/Greenville, MS 11.09

Did You Know? Members of CoCoRaHS NAME ID STA. NAME ANDY RI-PR-10 WOONSOCKET 0.3 W STEVE FL-BV-26 COCOA 0.6 WSW JERRY RI-BR-1 WARREN 1.0 SE JEFF SC-RC-3 SEVEN OAKS 2.2 NNE KRISTEN FL-CY-18 ORANGE PARK 2.4 WNW KEVIN SHAW MD-MG-8 GAITHERSBURG 2.5 WNW RICK IN-MD-8 ALEXANDRIA 1.3 E

SOME RAINFALL TOTALS FROM HURRICANE IKE THROUGH 10 PM 9/14/08 IN TEXAS HOUSTON 15.75 SPRING BRANCH (HARRIS COUNTY) 15.20 CONROE 4S 13.55 PANTHER BRIDE NEAR SPRING 13.14 Even with Ike no longer a tropical depression, there were strong winds. Reports Since 700 AM 9/14/08 LOUISVILLE KY 75 MPH COVINGTON KY 74 MPH HUNTINGBURG IN 67 MPH FORT KNOX KY 64 MPH WALNUT RIDGE AR 62 MPH POPULAR BLUFF MO 61 MPH

We hope that you enjoyed this month's Newsletter. See you next month, and be sure to visit the WEATHERFUN Website but most of all have fun with your weather.

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